Valentino Uomo Valentino 2014 Eau de Toilette

‘Girls can be anything,’ we are shouted at by marketing. We should have the courage to be ourselves. But, according to this very marketing, that should still happen within certain limits.
‘Be yourself, but only as long as we find it okay how you are.’
You get strange looks when you, as a man, linger in the women’s section of the perfume store (as a cat named Don Juan often had to experience) and vice versa, confronted with silly remarks like “But you know that’s for men?”

Pah. Designer #1 for handbags that you can hardly afford, shoes that are almost too precious to wear, Valentino Garavani the Ultimate knows better. Choosing a gender means limiting oneself. Hence, there are unisex bags and ‘Valentino Uomo,’ the androgynous man in women’s clothing or simply a person who is just a person.
Not everyone is privileged enough to make a choice.
Some don’t know exactly, others want to choose between two options, for others there’s nothing at all that corresponds to their being.
What do we do then? Decide on something that suits us best? Alternate?
With perfumes, no problem, but with the entry of gender in official identification documents, that’s a different story.
And then there’s the problem of stigmatization, that one is not always liked or even accepted in the world with a different designation than m/f.

I take Valentino’s Uomini (plural of ‘Uomo’) with a smirk and shining eyes from the shelf, because the bottles are stylish, his father, Grande Amore!
Moreover, ‘Uomo’ is not just the man, but also the human - and this perfume is clearly made for humans. For people like me. You. You all. Regardless of whether female, queer, male, diverse, non-binary, trans, or inter.
For people who love sweets but don’t want to get fat. For those who find monothematic too monothematic.
A fresh-herb greeting, a very sweet development, very ‘Nutella,’ nestled on leather, splattered with Nutella and in the aura a bit of ‘woodruff soda powder vibes’ - that’s how this Valentino Uomo comes across, a little touch of luxury for every day.
And I love it. 5ever and always, for its inner values and because it’s one of the best Valentinos.
It doesn’t last a whole day; after 5-6 hours, I reapply, but I do that gladly because this chic treasure is too precious to not see anything of the world and to remain solely in a dark cupboard.

Perfume connects people.
Thanks to Parfumo for introducing the gender option ‘diverse.’ For that and for much more, Grande Amore!
(Yes, I can’t say it often enough.)